In recent years there has occurred at all levels of government the enactment of laws and regulations directed toward protecting and cleaning up the environment. One problem to which these environmental laws have been directed is the prevention and cleanup of soil which has become contaminated through intentional and unintentional spilling of a variety of chemical wastes by individuals, businesses and industries. The tremendous increase in the use of the automobile during the last several decades and the rapid growth of automotive businesses and industries resulting from this increase have contributed a substantial amount to contamination of the environment. For example, the many service stations providing fuel and other petroleum products and related services for vehicles have resulted in the spillage of materials containing hydrocarbons that contaminate the soil. The operation of and waste disposal by chemical and petro chemical plants has resulted in similar soil contamination. Also, accidental spills resulting from truck and rail transport mishaps contaminate the soils on public and private right of ways. If these contaminants are not removed from the soil, they eventually may leach into the groundwater and create further environmental problems that are difficult to remedy. In order to properly protect the environment from further damage, it is essential that these contaminants be removed promptly upon discovery, and many of the laws at local, state and federal levels are forcing landowners and others to take all possible steps to remove these contaminants.
At the present time, sites contaminated with hydrocarbons are subject to stringent regulations regarding the removal and disposal of contaminated soil. Soil known to be contaminated often must be excavated, and the contaminated soil transported to landfills which have been designated to receive the contaminated soil. The soil excavated from the original contaminated site must of course be replaced with soil that is contamination free. Obviously, this is an expensive process. More importantly, this procedure for cleaning up the environment does not solve the contamination problem but merely moves the contaminated soil from one site to a site where it will hopefully do less harm. However, the overall environment remains contaminated, and in the process of removing the contaminated soil and transporting it to these designated landfills, the environment is exposed to further contamination. But more importantly, the soil remains in a contaminated state, and poses future problems for the area of the landfill and surrounding environment. Moreover, because of the limited number of available sites for depositing these hazardous substances, and because those owning property in the vicinity of the sites vigorously object to them, the solution to the problem is less than satisfactory and may in the long range create more problems than it solves. Other treatment methods such as air stripping have often proven to be even more expensive, intractable or ineffective.
There is therefore a need for a way of cleaning up the soil at the original contaminated site and returning it to the ground contamination-free.
There is a further need for a way of on-site processing of contaminated material which will clean up the soil at a considerably less cost than present methods, and thus make the environmental improvement available to those who might otherwise be subject to substantial economic loss if forced, as they are, to clean up their property by the various governmental agencies.
There is a further need for removing contaminants from soil by actually removing the contaminants from the soil rather than removing the contaminated soil and merely moving the soil to another disposal site without eliminating the contamination itself.